After EU leaders’ decision to delay Brexit day until October (EUROPE 12233/1), it is unclear how, when and even if Brexit will take place.
It is now almost certain the UK will participate in EU elections in May. The head of the UK’s electoral commission has said the elections will go ahead, and MEP Nigel Farage (the former UKIP leader) has launched a new Brexit Party that wants to “change politics”. The party intends to field six candidates on 23 May, including Farage and the sister of Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.
British prime minister Theresa May and selected ministers have been continuing talks with their opposite numbers in the Labour Party to help secure a majority in favour of the Brexit deal in another potential series of votes. But that will depend on whether she goes back on her red line on a customs union.
She told MPs in Parliament on Thursday that “there is more agreement in relation to a customs union than is often given credit when different language is used”. She often talks in terms of a “customs arrangement” but still refuses to go into detail about whether the UK would accept a common tariff with the EU and how it would handle trade talks with third countries. An independent trade policy is one issue on which Brexiteers have been willing to live or die.
MEPs will discuss the flexible Brexit extension on Wednesday (see other news) . Socialist leader Udo Bullmann welcomed the decision, saying it showed the EU taking “responsibility where the UK government has failed”. He urged and urged the UK to come forward with new proposals for the future relationship or hold a second referendum.
It took exactly six months to approve the legislation for the 2016 referendum, meaning a second referendum would not take place until October, cutting it close to the extended Brexit day of 31 October. But Eurasia group’s Mujtaba Rahman thinks that a pledge to hold a referendum (or general election) would easily secure the UK another Brexit delay, probably to the end of the year or next year.
May has asked her MPs to use the easter break to “reflect on the decisions that will have to be made swiftly on our return”. There is a lot to reflect on. (Sarah Collins)